The Congress termed it a “false inauguration” and alleged that Rs 5 lakh of the municipal corporation was spent on the project that was already initiated one-and-a-half years ago.

Congress Councillors protesting before laying the foundation Stone Ceremony of augmentation of city Water Supply Scheme by UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore with Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher and Mayor Arun Sood at Phase 5 and 6 at Water Works in Sector 39 of Chandigarh. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

The Congress councillors were detained on Friday at the Sector 39 police station on their way to the waterworks in the same sector to protest the inauguration of work of phase V and phase VI. The councillors were wearing black bands to mark the protest. Although councillors Poonam Sharma and Gurbax Rawat managed to reach near the gate, they were taken back to the police station by the cops.

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The Congress termed it a “false inauguration” and alleged that Rs 5 lakh of the municipal corporation was spent on the project that was already initiated one-and-a-half years ago. The Congress workers also blocked the road for nearly 15 minutes to stop other councillors reach the venue. However, the police got the route cleared immediately.

The Congress councillors said they want to make a plea to pre-pone the code of conduct, as the BJP was mostly inaugurating old projects and spending the civic body money on them. The code of conduct would be in force from November 15. The Congress councillors added that having the inauguration done in Sector 39 made no sense, since the water would come from Jandpur, which falls in Mohali.

Mayor Arun Sood said: “Today is a day of celebration for the city and the Congress councillors are wearing black bands.” City Congress chief Pardeep Chhabra said: “It is the murder of democracy. Everybody has the right to speak. And they wanted to kill our voice. We were detained for two-and-a-half hours.”

Chhabra added that the chairs were vacant and only civic employees attended the function.